The pa.s.sage was once again in Imperial hands—this was indeed good news, but things weren’t too great in actuality.

After investigating the situation, the imperial clan’s divination experts announced that the pa.s.sage had become extremely unstable. Although travel was still possible, the level of danger would increase sharply. Ordinary experts would very likely fall during the journey.

The pa.s.sage shouldn’t have collapsed this quickly, but the Eternal Flame seemed to have used the power of the surrounding void to reinforce the pa.s.sage. After his powers waned, however, the void around the pa.s.sage became unusually violent. The current pa.s.sage was like a thread floating about in the tempest.

One way was to wait until the void calmed down and the pa.s.sage became stable again. This would require a fairly long time, and no one knew how long it would take. Perhaps it would take long enough for the Evernight army to return to the neutral lands. Another method was for the empire to mobilize a heavenly monarch to stabilize the pa.s.sage, making it usable once more. That, however, would make it even more difficult to repair later on.

All parties excluded the second option immediately after the divination experts had brought it up. Heavenly monarchs enjoyed extremely high positions in the Empire. Not to mention the people here, even the Emperor did not have a good enough excuse to mobilize these supreme characters. Most of the bigger powers had already sent the most important people in with the first batch, so only those from the inferior aristocratic families remained. Some of the major clans had already sent five people in and had no more candidates to send even if they were allowed to.

Most of the people waiting in line were of civilian birth. Many of them were willing to take huge risks to change their lives, but no one would disturb a heavenly monarch for their sake.

The only important person who hadn’t entered the pa.s.sage was Song Zining himself. Neither the Imperial clan nor the aristocracy felt that he should take this risk. The seventh young n.o.ble was a celebrated talent in strategy, who had no need to prove himself in martial prowess.

The current state of the pa.s.sage destroyed half of the joy brought about by their recent victory. Now, they had no idea whether they should defend or abandon the place; after all, a sizable Imperial fleet was now bogged down in the neutral lands.

The awkward situation lasted but one day.

A light azure airs.h.i.+p suddenly appeared outside the skies, rus.h.i.+ng toward the Eastern Sea and Tidehark.

A commotion erupted among the wars.h.i.+ps standing guard in the vicinity because the approaching vessel was an imperial wars.h.i.+p. The insignia painted upon it signified that it belonged to the Northern Legion.

In the blink of an eye, the Imperial forces took to the air to welcome the visitor with the utmost respect.

The Northern Legion was under Lin Xitang’s direct command. Since Zhang Boqian’s ascension to the heavenly monarch realm, his former peer gradually became the most unfathomable character among the ten great marshals. There were rumors saying that he was not far off from the heavenly monarch realm. If it wasn’t for the fight against Lilith during the b.l.o.o.d.y battle and the void continent war, he might’ve caught up to Zhang Boqian already.

Even without reaching the heavenly monarch realm, Lin Xitang was still the publicly accepted authority in terms of divination. It was out of respect for the Li family that the imperial clan never made a formal announcement. Just this fact alone made Lin Xitang a character no one was willing to offend—he was probably even more difficult to deal with than a heavenly monarch.

He just needed to reach the peak of combat strength to fill that last bit of shortcoming. In terms of governing, strategy, and scheming, who would dare claim they were better than him? Even the Minister of the Right had to show Lin Xitang due respect in public and say he was inferior.

The notorious imperial party had even begun looking at him as their leader, completely forgetting the recent enmity. To them, it wasn’t important whether Lin Xitang truly belonged to their party—it was fine as long as he didn’t deny it. Perhaps he didn’t know about it or perhaps due to some other consideration, Lin Xitang never refuted these claims formally.

The current Lin Xitang was already a highly influential character in the empire. There were even rumors saying that he had actuated the void continent war single-handedly. If the empire could claim absolute victory in this war, the marshal’s name would go down in history as someone at the level of a national advisor.

The Northern Legion was Lin Xitang’s only direct subordinate force, an entire level higher than Red Scorpion. The legion’s wars.h.i.+p was clearly representative of the marshal. No one really cared who the messenger was because their respect was for Lin Xitang.

The Northern Legion airs.h.i.+p landed gradually under the escort of all the other vessels.

Song Zining was already waiting outside of the wars.h.i.+p’s doors when it flung open. A general in Northern Legion uniform walked out, glanced about, and laughed loudly. “Now that’s what I call f*cking grand!”

His words were fairly rude, vulgar, and insolent, but the people could only endure it out of respect for Lin Xitang. They bowed in unison, chanting, “Welcome, General.”

Only a few of those standing close to the airs.h.i.+p felt that this person was somewhat familiar and couldn’t resist shooting a few extra glances. Looking was fine, but one of them actually blurted out, “Isn’t that the Wei clan heir!?”

This cry startled everyone. They began sizing up the visitor and soon recognized him as Wei Potian, the scion of Marquis Bow.a.n.g of the Far East Province.

The crowd broke out in renewed salutation. “Welcome, General Qiyang, heir to Marquis Bow.a.n.g.”

Wei Potian waved his hand angrily. “What Qiyang? My name is Wei Potian!”

The Wei clan heir’s preference was known to many people. It was just that Marquis Wei had never officially changed his son’s name, and it went against the rules to change one’s name on his own. This wasn’t a problem in private, but it wasn’t too appropriate to call him Wei Potian in a public gathering. Someone could report this matter if they wanted to, but the Wei family was a powerful landowner. No one would be idle enough to do something so meaningless.

Hence, everyone felt a bit awkward at this point and didn’t know what to say. Fortunately, a smart person stepped in. “The Wei clan heir must be tired after his long journey.” The address muddled over his name much to everyone’s delight. The crowd soon became less reserved and started approaching to lick his boots.

Unlike Song Zining, Wei Potian was a true heir whose inheritance had been confirmed. In recent years, the man had gained great merits in the Far East Province and his personal strength had increased exponentially. It could be said that his future prospects couldn’t be more certain. The future marquis’ position was countless times higher than the family elders at the scene.

Moreover, Wei Potian was now clad in the Northern Legion’s uniform, and this provoked a lot of thoughts. Was the Wei clan working together with Lin Xitang now? Had the Wei clan joined the imperial party or had Lin Xitang left it?

This was extremely important information. The elders decided that they had to inquire about this in detail after going back, but the most important thing at present was to gain the favor of the Wei clan heir. All things aside, Wei Potian was still unmarried—who could ignore the allure of that empty position?

Wei Potian smiled and waved continuously. Compared to his youth, the current Wei clan scion was now more familiar with social niceties.

Song Zining remained motionless, but he couldn’t quite escape the fate of being noticed.

Wei Potian waved at him from afar and shouted, “Zining, you’re here, too!? Hahaha, why are you standing so far away? We haven’t seen each other for so long, let’s get intimate!”

Song Zining’s expression was ashen, unable to disguise his displeasure. That was strange because he was even more subtle than all the old fogies here. Yet, he simply didn’t like the man and wanted nothing more than to kick him back to the Far East Province. This fellow was just as ostentatious, even calling him out in front of the crowd.

The seventh young master was here to welcome the Northern Legion’s envoy. He was doing this out of respect for Lin Xitang, not that wild boar from the Wei family.

Wei Potian wasn’t about to let Song Zining off easy. He waved continuously, shouting, “Zining, why aren’t you coming over? There are too many people coming to welcome me, but I don’t really mind. Haha!”

The less tactful people nearby said, “Seventh Young n.o.ble, the Wei clan heir is calling for you! Why not head over?” Judging from his envious expression, it would seem he was desperate to head over himself—quite the good-dog material.

Song Zining had no choice but to head over and shake Wei Potian’s hand. “Qiyang, long time no see!”

Addressing Wei Potian by his most hated name, he added increased force to his grip, hoping to teach this wild boar a lesson. Song Zining was quite confident in his cultivation because, despite looking as though he wasn’t putting in the effort, he had kept up with Qianye all along and had broken through again recently. Comparatively, Wei Potian was somewhat inferior in terms of origin power ranking and quality. A secret fight like this was a contest between origin powers, not something Song Zining would lose.

But Song Zining was shocked after applying his grip because it felt as though he had grasped a small mountain peak. The mountain was small but incomparably hard, and it didn’t feel like he was holding a body made of flesh at all. The more force he applied, the stronger the counterattack that came from it, so much so that Song Zining could feel a bit of pain from his hand.

Taking note of the situation, Song Zining reduced his force and said with a smile, “It would seem Brother Qiyang has improved again during this long period. That’s quite a feat, I would say. Looks like you’ve had a fair bit of good luck recently, why have you run over to the boondocks instead of forging ahead?”

Song Zining was hinting that Wei Potian had just broken through out of sheer luck and ran over immediately afterward.

Wei Potian naturally understood the meaning. He laughed with great satisfaction, saying, “You’re right, I’ve indeed been quite lucky recently! Haha, I received some tips from Marshal Lin himself and that allowed me to break through the bottleneck.”

Everyone became envious after hearing that Lin Xitang had given pointers in person, and a tide of flattery washed over the place once more.